After the success of Deadstick, Howard was let in on the plan. He recalls the feelings of pride and honour at leading the invasion force, "I was so excited, but the problem was that I couldn't tell anyone not even Brian Priday my second-in-command." However Priday and the others soon began to catch on as the exercises took on a rather similar nature from this point on and D Company were given special privileges. Howard had only to ask for transport and trucks would be laid on to take them anywhere in Britain. Moreover, after Howard had put his company through a gruelling exercise (sometimes up to five days long), D Company would be allowed the next day off to recover, a practice unheard of in the British Army. Howard said, "that a soldier likes nothing better than to lie in bed when others are on duty."
This sympathy towards the soldiers in his company goes some of the way to explaining why Howard's D Company were chosen ahead of the others. Howard had been a regular soldier and had risen through the ranks, he understood the mentality of the soldier. By giving them days off after very tough exercises he maintained the level of morale that would be needed in the coming months. His soldiers had sat in Britain for two years while the war went on over the sea. Boredom was a big problem among soldiers in Britain and keeping morale high was essential.
Major John Howard
Howard's masterstroke in keeping his troops active, happy and fit was his own passion for sport. D Company would engage in a great amount of sport, every morning would see the company undertake a five-mile cross-country run before breakfast.The day would be spent on exercise, a route march would follow, then after dinner all the troops would have to either do another cross-country run or play football until bed time. The men had no free time to sit around and get bored. Howard also insisted that every single man do all this sport, even his platoon officers and he, himself took part. This invoked a feeling of unity in the company. Everybody felt tired and everybody got blisters, thus the team spirit and morale within D Company was superb as well as the all round fitness. It was these qualities which convinced Gale to pick them as the Coup de Main force on D Day.
At the end of April, D Company was enlarged from four platoons to six (one for each glider) and in addition were assigned a troop of thirty Royal Engineers ( five per glider). They were now ready for their final training before the real thing. All the exercises held over the next month bore a resemblance, capturing two bridges intact was always the scenario and so the men began to realise the importance of what they were doing. The final exercise in mid-May was held just outside Exeter on two bridges with roughly a kilometre in between. Howard had arranged this personally and had scoured Britain for a place as similar to Normandy as possible. D Company practised taking these bridges by day and by night for four straight days until they had mastered the art.
In late May, Howard moved D Company to RAF Station Tarrant Rushton where he would brief his men about what they were to do. The invasion was scheduled for just two weeks away and so Howard let his men in on the fact that they would be the elite force at the spearhead of the Allied Invasion of Europe. The men were elated, having sat back in Britain for so long they were finally going to get their chance and not only that, they were going to lead the force. Lieutenant Tod Sweeney said, "We were really proud and excited to be chosen to make the first foothold in Europe. It was like being selected for the national rugger team, or walking out to open the innings for England at Lords." This new information doubled the already strong sense of camaraderie in the company. They had done as much training as they possibly could and were arguably one of the fittest companies in the British Army, however they would not even get their chance to start the invasion if the glider pilots could not land in the right place.